The "Real" McCain
So this is the guy a lot of people missed from 2000, glimpses also seen on his recent SNL appearances. We’re in good hands…..just wanted to give our new president’s oppenent a salute for Veterans Day:
JAY LENO: As I said, today is Veterans Day. I cannot
think of a better person to have as my first guest.
Vietnam veteran, real American war hero, also just ran
a hard-fought campaign against Barack Obama, now our
President elect. Please welcome, in his first
television interview, Senator John McCain.
(Applause.)
Welcome back, sir.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Thank you, my friend. And thank
you for having all these brave servicemen and women
here. I’m honored to be with you. Thanks.
JAY LENO: It’s been a week since the election. How
are you doing?
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Well, I’ve been sleeping like a
baby.
(Laughter.)
Sleep two hours, wake up and cry. Sleep two hours, wake
up and cry.
(Laughter.)
JAY LENO: Well, how —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: I gotta tell you one quick story
about Arizona. As you know, the great state of
Arizona I’ve had the honor to represent. And we have
a problem in Arizona. It’s really kind of a sad
thing, because Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran for
President of the United States. Morris Udolf (sp.)
from Arizona ran for President of the United States.
Bruce Babbitt from Arizona ran for President of the
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United States. I, twice. Arizona may be the only
state in America where mothers don’t tell their
children that some day they can grow up and be
President of the United States.
(Laughter.)
I mean, that’s a sad story.
JAY LENO: How about your wife Cindy? How is she
taking it? Because sometimes —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Yeah, it’s tough. It’s tougher
always on the family members. But she’s doing fine.
She’s doing very fine. Thanks for having her and
Meghan on the show. Appreciate it.
JAY LENO: They were great guests.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Thank you. And I’m glad to be
back for my 14th time. I’m happy to be on.
JAY LENO: The day after the election, it was so
weird. I turn on the TV, and I see you coming out of
your house or apartment. You get in your car, and you
drive somewhere by yourself.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Yeah. To get a cup of coffee,
yeah. I didn’t have a single accident.
JAY LENO: I mean —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Maybe one.
JAY LENO: What was that like to suddenly be
surrounded — “He’s coming down the hall. Remove” —
and then suddenly — I mean —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Well, secret service people,
despite the idiot you talked about tonight, they’re
wonderful people. They’re brave. They serve the
country. They’re just really the best of America.
But it is a bit confining, you know. So I’m able
to —
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JAY LENO: So what did you do that first day? Where
were you driving when you —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Went down to get a cup of
coffee. Cindy and I went down to get a cup of coffee
and — not the newspaper. I knew what it was going to
say.
(Laughter.)
JAY LENO: And you went up to the mountains too?
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Yeah, went up to our place near
Sedona and had a very nice time.
JAY LENO: Now, which house is that? Number 12?
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: You know what? That’s — let’s
see. 27.
JAY LENO: 27.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: But we’re — you know, look,
it’s a great honor. It’s a great privilege. It’s an
incredible thing that I was able to do. And I
saluted, as you know, and admire and respect the
winner, Senator — President elect Barack Obama.
JAY LENO: Actually, to me, that was, I thought, a
nice moment when you were talking somewhere. In the
campaign when I saw ugly things going back and forth
and a woman said, “Well, Barack Obama, he’s an Arab or
a terrorist,” and you stopped and you said, “No, he’s
a good man and he’s a family man.”
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Yeah, a good and decent person.
JAY LENO: And I like that. I thought that was quite
impressive.
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Well, you’ve got to have a
respectful campaign. And that doesn’t mean it isn’t
tough. I mean, campaigns are tough, and they should
be because you’re seeking the most important position
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in the world. But there’s a difference between being
tough and being personal or angry. And look, America
right now — I don’t have to tell you — I don’t have
to tell anybody out here, especially those members of
the military — that we’re in two wars. We’ve got
housing problems. We’ve got economic crisis. We’ve
got all these problems. Now it’s time for America to
join together and support the man who was just elected
President.
JAY LENO: Now, what do you think was the main reason
you lost. I mean, it was close. You got —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: I think personality.
JAY LENO: Personality fault?
(Laughter.)
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Maybe too many people saw me on
the Jay Leno show.
JAY LENO: What would you — is there anything,
looking back, you would have done differently?
Seriously, is there anything you said, “Maybe I
shouldn’t have said this”?
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: You know, one of the things — I
do study history. And every book I’ve read about
presidential campaigns is the person that one ran a
perfectly flawless, beautifully machined, great
campaign, and the person who lost, “Oh, my God, all
screwed up.” I could tell you a lot of things that we
may have made mistakes on. But Jack Kennedy, after
the failure of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs, said,
“Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat has one more
lonely orphan.” He didn’t use the word “orphan,” but
we’re on television. So that’s the way it is. Look,
I’m so happy to have had the friends, go to the places
we went to, Gee’s Bend, Alabama, where Martin Luther
King went before the March in Selma. And I met a
group of African-American women who make quilts,
singing. I’ll never forget so many of those wonderful
experiences that I had that no other way I could have
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had — I could have had the experiences I had.
JAY LENO: When you sit with friends, you discuss it,
it does seem like, as viewing this, knowing you, I
would see sort of two McCains. Sometimes I would see
one McCain, and then the times when you were being
funny, like at the Al Smith dinner and “Saturday Night
Live” and said, “Oh, that was” — I said, “Why can’t
we get” — “where is that McCain?” That one didn’t
seem to be quite as visible. Is it the pressure and
the tension of —
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: I think these are tough times,
and you have to — and campaigns are tough. I don’t,
frankly, think that a lot of people wanted a standup
comic. They wanted to know how we were going to
address the issues. That’s why I didn’t worry about
your write-in candidacy.
(Laughter.)
But, you know, you just do the best that you can. And
again, it’s an incredible honor. You know, we’re not —
I’m not denigrating my past, but I stood fifth from the
bottom of my class at the Naval Academy. If my old
Marine company officer were here today, he’d say, “In
America, anything is possible.”
(Laughter.)
JAY LENO: Look, we’ll take a break. When we come
back, we’ll discuss Sarah Palin. We’ll be right back
with Senator McCain.
(Commercial break.)
Welcome back. Talking with Senator John McCain.
Let’s talk about Governor Palin now. The polls show
that she hurt you. I know you’re too much of a
gentleman to probably answer this question, but did
she? Do you think it hurt you at all?
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: No, look, Sarah Palin and her
